>
> >However, my point of view is that there is no harm and plenty of benefit
> from buying quality queens from different sources and attempting to produce
> good stock by an additive, not subtractive, method. The crap falls by the
> wayside in any case.


The problem that I've experienced with this method (mixing up different
stocks in a breeding program) is that you often get more crap than
gold--many of the new combinations of alleles don't work out well in the
whole package.

If you are NOT producing your own queens, then its good to bring in a
diversity of stock for your operation, as some will do better under certain
circumstances (weather, nutrition, viruses).

However, if you ARE breeding your own, then I'd limit introduction of
outside stock to drone mothers, in order to "offer" some additional alleles
to your mix, but without losing the identity of your breeding population as
a whole.


Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm